Hong Kong -

Went with Mom and Dad to Hong Kong.  They were playing in the International Seniors Amateur Golf Association tournament.  So spent a lot of time with the "seniors" touring around HK.  

But also got a chance to hang out with my childhood friend - Tim Lewis!

Fish Market 

Flower Market

 Bird Market

Hmm - which way?

Opening dinner with ISAGA....

boat cruises

horse races

Yangon, Myanmar

Last day in Yangon - visited the longest reclining Buddha in the world. Length from halo to foot 216 feet (65.83 meters).

Shwedagon Pagoda - pouring 41 cups of water on the day I was born.

At The Governor's Residence - last day.

Bagan, Myanmar

Bagan - Thursday October 17

We met Chang at 9:00 am, and loaded in our van to go the Viewing Tower (right beside our hotel). We went to the 9th floor where there is also a restaurant to see the spectacular view overlooking all the pagodas/temples. We learned from Chang about this area was destroyed by the Monogalians in the 11th century, so all theses temples are from the 11th and 13th centuries.  However in 1975 there was a huge earthquake which basically knocked the tops off the temples and since then they have been replaced but exactly how they looked.  There are 3 main architectural styles - those made from the Indians, those made from the Sri Lankans and those made by the Burmese. The king built the largest temples and the medium sized ones of from the other royal family members and the really small ones are made from civilians. It is believed that if you erect a pagoda you will go into the eternal life. 
We then hit a bank!  However Mom and Dads ATM card did not work.
Randomly we went into the slums of Bagan and ended up in a bean paste "old fashion" factory.  We saw all the steps of how the paste is made to the final packaging to be sold. It is considered "fast food" for the locals.
Next we went to "new" Bagan to see the most sacred temple - it is believed to have a tooth relic in it by a Buddhist. We walked around this one for about 30 minutes. 

Then we went into another temple which had 4 Buddhas in it but you were not allowed to take photos. However in this one  the walls were gated because some German made stole the painted panels off the walls and now they are displayed in some German museum 
The next temple we went into was called Ananda Phaya which had 4 huge standing Buddhas but only 2 of them were the originals. We learned about what the hand positions meant.  Hands together and 3 fingers up = first lesson/ teachings; hand out = no fear; hand with fingers touching ground calling the Earth spirits to come and ward off the evil spirits. 
Bob made a comment "hey that girl is wearing my skirt!"  The men have worn their longkos daily!  
Next we went to see how lacquer ware is made.  It is made from bamboo and resin from lacquer trees (grown in the northern part of Burma).  The process does take a long time to make.  After each coat of lacquer it takes a week to dry and the the best quality lacquer has 22 coats on it. We all went shopping and were glad they took visas!  

It is truly unbelievable that they really don't use any machinery for laborious work.  

We had a short break to rest and get out of the hot sun.  About 4 we went and got onto pony carts to have a nice ride by the temples with the sun hitting the buildings with a crisp light. About 5, we ended up near the river and were accosted by many children trying to sell us merchandise.  I gave my "do not buy things from children" speech to the kids and then to Jilla and Bob, Jilla escaped barely.... "But they are so cute!"
We watched the sun set whilst on a boat on the river and then returned back to the hotel via the van.  It was a full day but it was amazing all the stupas (you could say we were stupefied!)

Inle Lake, Myanmar

October 15

What a day!  Best 2 lines of the day Bob to Jill "Can I borrow your skirt?"  And Dad to Mom " where is the bag with my skirt in it?" We started our adventure today at 6:30 am Chang our guide down the hill towards the lake. We got into a narrow boat, we all sat in chairs one behind each other (me in the front) and head across the lake.  The lake is always extremely flat as the small motors on these long boats is quite small so not too much wake.  We got into position on one of the sides of the path of the Pagoda boat floats - it was a very special time for us to be in this area as it was Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda Festival (which does last for about 2 weeks). These narrow and very long boats are moved by a paddle a person and they row using one leg. We watched the procession of the boats for a good hour.  Chang our guide is from this area and was very excited to view the parade.  Supposedly they do this procession all day long for 2 weeks.
Next we went to see how they grow the hydro-? Plants especially tomatoes are all grown in the water.  Then we went to the Ngaphechaung Monastery where Bob proudly wore my sarong as his skirt.
We went through many towns all in the water - all these towns are all on water.  In Cambodia I saw one floating village but this is much larger. 
They wash their clothes and dishes in the lake water which is basically not clean.
There is a 5 day market that moves around and so we went to it. It was very similar to the markets I have seen in other Asian countries. People chopping up meat parts that could turn me quickly into a vegetarian and fish laying on large leaves (no ice).  Mom bought a straw sun hat and this Burmese lady helped us with the bargaining so we felt obliged to go check out her souvenir table and so bought 2 necklaces and a pair of earrings.  All with the mountain people circular pattern on it. Dad and I also bought some monk paintings.
Next we went to see how the boats were made. The boats are made of teak and last a generation (about 50-60 years).  The shorter boats (fishing boats) and cost about $700
And the longer boats which are used for transportation/shipment were about $4500.
Next we saw how lotus flower silk was made and wove. The lotus flower stalk is quite spiky and a woman breaks about 2 inches up the stalks and pulling the stalks apart gives you the silk threads, similar to worm silk it is a tedious hand task. 
We had lunch at the Golden Kite Italian restaurant in the middle do the lake and then saw how mulberry wood paper is made and then quite exhausted headed back to the resort for good nap and relaxation.  
Dad and Bob wore their new skirts to dinner and Jilla wore her new outfit.

Inle Lake - Day 2

Inle Lake - Wednesday, October 16 

We all had concluded that we didn't need to go see the Pagoda festival procession again this morning and so had a later (more welcoming) start of 8:30 am.  Back in our boat named "Destination Asia" we headed to Indien.  On the way we saw one of those fisherman who used the conical nets to catch fish.
We went down a tributary off the lake to Indien.  It was market day there today and so we saw a lot of people walking on the banks of the river carrying their merchandise. Then went through the market again.  Mom, Jilla and I all bought the same red shirt.  There were a lot of mountain Burmese people at the market (they wear black clothes and colorful loosely tied turbans on their heads). I took a lot of photos of people in the market. 
Then we walked to up to see Shwe Inn Dain Pagoda.  The stairways to the pagoda were covered and had white pillars holding up the roof and it was lines with merchants selling "antiques" and other treasures!  These temples were all very close together so we walked around these a while and then headed back to the boat.  We had lunch at Mr.Toe's restaurant and then went back to the hotel.